Equipment bags are used by amateur and professional athletes to tote their equipment to and from workouts, practices, and games. For example, baseball players use equipment bags to carry a wide range of equipment including, but not limited to: baseball bats, gloves, batting gloves, batting helmets, pine tar, sunglasses, bat weights (or donuts), baseball cleats, and the like.
Dirt, debris, and other residue from the cleats or shoes can accumulate within a bag when large quantities of equipment are carried in that one bag. This dirt and soil can damage or dirty the other equipment that is within the bag. Moreover, athletic shoes or cleats stored within the bag tend to generate a foul-smelling odor within the bag over time. Such an odor can make the bag smell bad and can even pervade and affect other equipment within the bag. Even moreover, in the case of baseball cleats, the metal (or even plastic) spikes can scratch or otherwise damage equipment within the bag.
To avoid the aforementioned problems, athletes often try to keep their shoes or cleats stored separately from the rest of their equipment. For example, baseball players often hang their shoes from the knobs of their baseball bats or use clip-like devices to clip their shoes to an equipment bag. Some athletes even just carry their shoes separate and apart from their equipment bags at all times. However, these solutions still allow the athlete's shoes to dangle freely, and cleats on the shoes are more likely to scratch cars or other surfaces while carried.
Other athletes may carry the shoes in a shoe bag separate from the equipment bag. Those shoe bags do a good job of eliminating the dirt and debris within the main equipment bag, as well as odor issues. However, when an athlete stores shoes separately from other equipment, he or she must remember the shoes in addition to the equipment bag. Remembering to take more equipment to a game or practice can pose a challenge when an athlete is already concentrating on the game or practice. Moreover, because the product is not actually incorporated into the equipment bag, the accessory may require an additional purchase for the user, and can be unwieldly.
Some bag manufacturers include separate interior pockets intended for carrying the shoes or cleats in their equipment bags. Even with this intended solution, dirt and debris may enter the back and affect other equipment being stored in the bag. Moreover, there is no circulation system to limit the odor that is released by the shoes. Finally, with this solution, the total amount of storage volume is reduced, and an athlete has less room in his or her bag to store other equipment.
Also, in each of the solutions described above where the shoes are stored in a bag (either contained within the equipment bag or separate from the equipment bag), the bags are typically not large enough to fit the cleats of a person having large feet. A person with large feet has shoes that take up more space, and the internal pockets or separate bags are often not large enough.
A further drawback of a bag for storing shoes that is also contained within the equipment bag occurs when the bag (or built-in shoe pocket) is located at the bottom of an equipment bag. It can be very difficult to access the shoes at the bottom of the equipment bag with other objects in the bag above the shoes that must be moved aside. This is especially inconvenient when the shoes are typically the first piece of equipment that is donned by an athlete prior to beginning play.